Tarw Coch
Member
- Location
- Bottom of Wats Dyke
Possibly the worse decision I made when we went into a NVZ was to try to do everything right.Small dairy farm in the NVZ with 100 cows near here has just their buildings, farmhouse and enough land to store their round baled silage squeezed between the road and the river. all their land is the other side of the road and in other villages, some of it rented. They have virtually no storage and spread slurry and solid muck throughout the year. I don't know how they get away with it.
I have no love of paperwork at the best of times so decided to engage the services of a professional to make sure my paperwork was complete and correct.
They have advised that I need and applied for a grassland derogation on my behalf meaning i can keep/spread muck equivalent to a stocking rate of up to 2.5 livestock units per hectare provided I have at least 80% grassland. This involves some annual submitting of figures to the EA but also puts me on their radar as being higher risk and as such more likely to get an inspection.
I’m well aware that some are basically taking no notice of NVZ’s with the attitude that they’ll plead ignorance if the EA come calling, it doesn’t seem such a bad plan as I have only heard of the EA inspecting farms that have a derogation, the others seemingly being under their radar.